POLICE SUICIDES AS LINE OF DUTY DEATHS
Join Us (See Below)
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| Lt. Michael Pigott's last words. Line of duty? |
"While it was no doubt a gun that ended Eddie Adamsons life, what loaded that weapon was the cumulative
gravitas of what happened on March 14, 1980--the day Toronto Const. Michael Sweet, the father of three young girls, was shot,
held hostage, and allowed to bleed to death during a fumbled robbery."
Thus reports The Toronto Sun in 2009. It is time, they say, to add his name to others on the Honour Role of having given their lives
in the line of duty.
Sgt Adamson headed the Swat Team that day. He wanted to storm the restaurant, hearing
Sweet begging for his life and about to die. But he was ordered to stand down.
"And obeying that order haunted him to his grave."
"The Canadian Workplace Safety and Insurance Board finally caught up with the 21st century
by ruling that Eddie Adamson's death was not simply brought on by a bullet from a gun but from post truamatic stress disorder
triggered by the guilt he felt each day for the last years of his life for not disobeying the order to stand down and, instead,
storming the building to save Michael Sweet's life."
This sets a precedent that has cried out to be recognized for many of law enforcement's dead
heroes like Eddie Adamson, both in Canada and the United States. In the US, also, are cases of officers who have served
with honor, some awarded the Medal of Valor, yet whose sacrifices have been clouded by stigma and hidden in the
closet because the trauma of their experiences finally drove them to suicide.
In tracking police suicides during 2008 and 2009, not a single suicide was attributed
to emotional trauma suffered on the job--yet officers and department heads are quick to boast that law enforcement is one
of the world's most stressful and traumatic lines of work. We saw clear cases during those two years that deserved the
same recognition as Officer Adamson.
Which Suicides? No one suggests all police suicides should be considered
as "line of duty." Many do occur for reasons other that work related trauma. Suicide is too multi-dimensional
to say that "all" are duty related. But we are remiss in saying that NO police suicides are the result of work-related
trauma. Each year we see examples like the Adamson case that are ignored, hidden in the closet, blamed on spouses, financial
problems or other issues that are often symptoms, not causes of the suicide.
As one writer said, succinctly, “In some ways, a cop's work may be even more traumatic than that of a soldier sent into a war zone. The police officer's job, over many years, exposes and re-exposes them to traumatic events that would make
anybody recoil in horror.”
Anyone familiar with the origins of posttraumatic stress disorder and and how it can impacts emergency workers
must come to one conclusion: that for certain suicides the term “line of duty death” must be expanded in
the Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program, Disability Benefits/Hometown Heroes Act and the criteria for the National Law
Enforcement Memorial Wall to include deaths caused by the horrific effects of either or both critical incident/cumulative
trauma.
These names must be honored on that wall.
Read also the article by the past president of the Toronto Police Officer's Association, Art Lymer, who helped make this happen.
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| Walt, Leona Narr, Survivors of Law Enforcement Suicide |
Are these deaths caused "by their own hand?" Of their own choice? Of course not.
As our Canadian brothers and sisters have realized in the case of Eddie Adamson, he did not die from a bullet--"but from post
traumatic stress disorder."
We must come out
of the Dark Ages into the 21st century and recognize that PTSD is a disorder--not a choice made over coffee and breakfast,
not a free act done "at one's own hand" but an act done in response to bewildering desperation and seemingly inescapable
pain. It is not akin to robbing a bank or mowing one's lawn--it is the equivalent of standing at the top of the Twin
Towers, flames burning the skin from your back, and deciding whether to jump or "be courageous" and perish in the flames.
Yet, when this officer
has given heart, mind and finally body in full service, we smugly dismiss him as a "coward" who made "the wrong
choice."
______________________
Why do we hide a suicide or its cause? If the brakes on a police car fail
and an officer dies, would we would cover that up as well?
______________________
Further, it's time
for departments to begin reporting honestly on these deaths and their true causes, not hiding them in the closet, blaming
them on the spouse or the officer's drinking (both of which may well have been symptomatic of stress). Why do we
hide the cause of an officer's death? If the brakes on a police car fail and an officer dies, would we cover that up
as well? Is there a difference?
When we say, "It's
not about how they died, it's about how they lived," we need to mean it. When an officer dies in the line of duty on
our watch and we deny he or she is "one of us," we shame ourselves.
In order for a death to
be recognized as work related, departments rely on it having an exterior physical cause, such as an accident or assault.
Other reasons include heart attacks and strokes
within 23 hours and 59 minutes after chasing a suspect ten feet. There are no specific provisions, however,
for a work-related death/suicide due to horrific psychological trauma.
We have have no argument with
the foregoing standards, but knowing the torture the mind goes through in a suicidal state, we cannot believe that including
deserving suicides in the definition of "line of duty death" is not equally deserving--if not more so!
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| Trooper Paul McCarthy, police trauma and suicide |
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Join our growing list of supporters:
Anne Bisek, Psy.D., Psychologist
Jeff Shannon, Marriage and Family Therapist
Richard L. Levenson, Jr., Psy.D,
Police Surgeon, Ulster County NY Sheriffs Office
Police Surgeon, NYS Troopers PBA NYSP
Occupational Chaplains of America
J. Mark Hall, Ph.D, Psychologist
Connecticut Alliance to Benefit Law Enforcement (CABLE) Inc.,
George Nielson, Chief, Placerville Police Department
Retired Peace Officers Association of California (RPOAC)
Law Enforcement Mental Health Alliance (LEMHA)
Catherine Leon, Licensed Clincal Social Worker
Badge of Life Police Suicide Prevention Program
Andy O'Hara, Ret. California Highway Patrol
Jason Louis, Butte County Ca Sheriffs K-9
J. K. Mehtani, MD, Psychiatrist
John Warren, Bn Chief, San Mateo Fire Dept and Chair, San Mateo County CISM Team
Cynthia Stachowski, Ret. Greensboro NC Police Dept
Debbie Martin, Survivor / Steve Martin 10-30-2005 LEO
Daniel Cameron, Ret. California Highway Patrol
Richard Augusta, Ret. California Highway Patrol
P. T. Reilly, TX, Retired State Police
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| Kendra Clemons, Esther Prichard, police suicide survivors |
Janet Mentink, RN, FNP, PhD
Ron Clark, RN, MS
California Peer Support Association (CPSA)
PoliceWives.org
Sandra Spruiell, #2854, Ret. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police
Walt Narr, Ret. Captain, Davis Police Department, and Survivor of law enforcement
suicide
Donna G. Schulz, LODS Survivor, Bruce Schulz, FBI Special Agent, 2/12/49 - 03/08/1995
Sergeant J.B. Brafford, Patrol Field
Commander, UNC Charlotte Police,NC
Kathy Rillo, survivor of law enforcement suicide 2009
Richard Isaacs, retired officer
Desi Blondeel-Timmerman, in Memory of EDSO Deputy Melissa A. Meekma - EOW
12-09-2008
Gary Bush, instructor and retired police officer
Julie Love
Jason Blessing
Kim Stone
Theresa Harmon
Becky Seivwright
Jason Barkess, Cpl, Warren Co SD
Callie Chung
Nena Stillwell
Martin Lee, Deputy
Anyone
is welcome to add their name to the list to indicate support by merely writing badgeoflife@yahoo.com
In the end we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our
friends.
--Martin Luther King, Jr
Web page sponsored by
survivors of law enforcement suicide
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